Currently, catamenial tampons are manufactured so that they can be inserted into a woman's vagina in two different ways. One way is by digital insertion wherein a woman uses her fingers to position the tampon into her vagina. The second way is to insert the tampon with a tampon applicator wherein the tampon is assembled into an applicator during the manufacturing process. In use, the woman holds and operates the applicator in order to insert the tampon into her vagina. The use of an applicator to insert a tampon has surpassed the use of digital insertion primarily for sanitary reasons. Until now, most tampon applicators have been manufactured having a straight cylindrical profile which retains a straight cylindrically shaped tampon. A disadvantage of trying to insert a straight cylindrically shaped tampon with a straight applicator is that neither matches up with the arcuate profile of a woman's vaginal cavity. Therefore, some women experience discomfort when trying to insert a straight tampon using a straight applicator.
Curved tampon applicators have been designed and patented which are capable of housing arcuate shaped tampons so as to more closely approximate the curvature of a woman's vagina. These curved applicators with these curved tampons hold great promise for being more comfortable. However, one drawback over straight cylindrical tampon applicators has been recognized. With straight tampon applicators, rotation of the outer tube did not change the orientation of the tampon relative to the vaginal cavity. With a curved tampon applicator, if the outer tube is rotated during the insertion process, the tampon could be expelled such that instead of moving up into the vaginal cavity, the tampon is actually angled against the side wall of the vagina. Such action could cause discomfort or prevent easy insertion of the absorbent tampon into the woman's vagina.
In order to avoid rotation or twisting of the curved tampon applicator during the insertion process, an improved fingergrip portion has been developed which utilize two pairs of flat surfaces. The presence of two perpendicularly aligned pairs of flat surfaces serve to accommodate two of the more common styles used by women for holding an applicator.
Now a curved tampon applicator with an improved fingergrip portion has been invented which prevents the applicator from rotating during insertion of a catamenial tampon into a woman's vagina.